Showcase Liquor is on North Lake Avenue in Pasadena, a street where most customers arrive by car. The store needed a sign that reads from a moving vehicle in both directions, day and night. The answer was a vertical lightbox blade sign with acrylic letters. These are the project notes.
What we built
A lightbox cabinet mounted perpendicular to the wall above the storefront, so it faces the traffic rather than the sidewalk. The face is lime green with the word LIQUOR in dark green acrylic letters stacked vertically, lit from inside with LED modules. At night the sign lights the whole facade; in daylight the green face carries the same contrast.
Why a blade sign for a liquor store
- Drivers see it early. A flat wall sign is invisible until you are in front of the store; a projecting sign shows from a block away in both directions.
- Narrow frontage. A vertical sign uses the height of the building instead of its width.
- One word does the work. For a liquor store, LIQUOR is the word people are scanning the street for.
Why lime green
Most illuminated signs on a commercial street are white, red or blue. A saturated yellow-green face with dark letters is rare enough to register, and it is one of the most visible color combinations at night. The customer wanted the store to be impossible to miss after dark, and it is.
Lightbox with acrylic letters vs. channel letters
A lightbox with acrylic letters costs less than a set of channel letters and puts the whole message on one bright face. Channel letters are individual lit letters mounted directly on the building and suit a wide fascia. For a projecting sign a cabinet is usually the right structure: it carries its own lighting, it is read from both sides, and it holds up to wind and weather on an arm above the sidewalk.
Permits in Pasadena
Pasadena is its own city with its own sign code, separate from Los Angeles. Projecting signs have limits on size, on how far they extend over the sidewalk and on clearance below them, and an illuminated sign needs a permit. We work in Pasadena regularly and take care of the paperwork as part of the job. See our permits page.
Need a sign for a store in Pasadena?
We design, build and install illuminated signs and storefront signs for Pasadena businesses from our shop in Pacoima. See our Pasadena page or send us a photo of your storefront and we will send back a design and a quote.
Related: our custom outdoor sign services in Los Angeles and outdoor sign installation pages explain how we design, permit, build and install signs like this one.